GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Steve Spurrier’s statue was still shining after Saturday’s game. At least the local pigeons were nice to the guy.

As for the local football team, yikes. South Carolina has fallen faster than Felix Baumgartner. The splat you heard Saturday was the Gamecocks’ 44-11 landing at Florida Field.

Wasn’t it just two weeks ago we were ready to declare the Year of the Gamecock? At 67, Spurrier was looking like the Evil Genius who built Florida into a swamp monster.

“Two weeks ago was two weeks ago,” he said.

It feels more like two decades ago. South Carolina beat Georgia 35-7 and Marcus Lattimore proclaimed, “This is not the old South Carolina. We can play with y’all. We can play with anybody.”

Well, anybody except the programs they’re striving to emulate. First came the 23-21 loss at LSU. That was disappointing but not a killer. Devastation came against the Gators.

“We’re embarrassed,” Spurrier said.

He was blown out 56-6 here in 2008, but that was with the Gamecocks of old. They’d won 17 of 19 games heading into LSU, and were ranked No. 3 in the coaches’ poll.

It looked like there was indeed a second act for Spurrier. After losing at least five games each of his first six seasons, people were wondering if the game had passed the Ol’ Ball Coach by.

He was still dangerous, but the Gamecocks were nothing like the Gators he once commanded. Then Spurrier showed he is much more than a Fun ‘N Gun guy. He re-tooled South Carolina into Smash ‘N Dash the past two years behind Lattimore and a great defense.

That set up Saturday as a crossroad game. If the Gamecocks could put down the resurgent Gators, they’d own the SEC East and LSU would be forgotten.

It turned out to be a crossroad game, all right. The Gamecocks are headed to bowl nobody will remember. Florida is on the road to the SEC Championship Game, where Alabama will probably hold it to three first downs.

The Gators have a great defense and special teams. Offensively, it’s hard to tell since all they had to do Saturday was accept South Carolina’s charity.

Quarterback Connor Shaw fumbled on the first play after being blindsided by a cornerback blitz. Florida got the ball at the 2-yard line and punched it in. The Gamecocks’ gift-wrapped two more touchdowns in the second quarter.

“Basically we’re saying, ‘Here, Florida. We don't want to win. You can have this fumble, you can have this fumble, you can have this fumble,’” Spurrier said.

At halftime, South Carolina had allowed two first downs, 29 yards total offense and trailed 21-6. That’s hard to do.

It’s another to lose to yourself. That argument might have been valid if South Carolina had showed up in the second half. A sore-hipped Lattimore getting only three carries certainly hurt, but overall the Gamecocks are as talented as Florida.

Something is missing. The Gamecocks heard how they’re as good as anybody (except Alabama) in the SEC, and they started believing it. Spurrier was obviously frustrated with the effort and sloppiness.

“One thing we must do is find the guys that really want to play for South Carolina,” he said. “We can’t watch the guys that are playing right now. We can’t watch the guys that are laying it on the ground.”

That’s a lack of concentration, and it’s up to the coach to cure that. Spurrier’s Florida teams didn't suffer many mental lapses, especially at The Swamp. He came up with the name for Florida Field, went 68-5, and made Florida a destination stop for prospective coaches. It also became home to his statue out front.

“I don’t ever want to use the word ‘Easy,’” Florida coach Will Muschamp said. “But he made my job a lot more do-able.”

That job is to return Florida to where it was under Spurrier and pre-midlife crisis Urban Meyer. Nobody’s building any Muschamp statues yet, but the Gators are getting that old Swamp feeling.

As for the Gamecocks, Spurrier seemed to have them pointed in the right direction. Now they don’t know where they’re going.